Bradbury: An Illustrated Life: A Journey to Far Metaphor

This treat of a book is unique in that it is not merely a collection of illustrations from Bradbury publications over the years, but seeks to document the whole spectrum of "visualizing" the rich prose of Mr. Bradbury, an almost impossible task! This includes films, stage productions, marginal doodles by Bradbury himself, books and films that inspired Bradbury in his early years, and much more - a rewardingly broad approach to crafting the book.In addition wholeheartedly agreeing with the wonderful points noted by other reviewers, I would like to point out that the book features much rare material by Joseph Mugnaini, the definitive Bradbury artist, in the form of concept sketches for covers, stage backdrops, and some of the original paintings that inspired the Bradbury-Mugnaini partnership in the first place. The contribution of Mugnaini's works to Bradbury's success, as a visual carnival barker beckoning readers into Bradbury's world is tough to underestimate. The book is beautifully printed, with one absolutely tragic exception - the reproduction of Charles Addams' original illustration for the story "Homecoming" is horrible! It is terribly blurry and there are some kind of liquid stains on the original work, which hung in the Bradbury home for many years. For comparison, look at the (reversed) reproduction used as the dust jacket for Bradbury's recent "From the Dust Returned" novel/collection. Just unfortunate that the one illustration botched - was the lone collaboration between two magnificent twentieth-century masters of the macabre. Still OVERWHELMINGLY worth owning however.

This coffee table book is a must have for Bradbury fans. Full of pictures and illustrations of his various stories and books are interweaved with text written by friends and associates of Bradbury's throughout his professional carreer. The book spends a great deal of time on his personal correspondance with William Gaines (comic book publisher and later MAD magazine). The correspondance shows a literary master who was truly fond of comics,then considered a trash medium during the 1950's. The book also spends a good deal of time on notes by Francois Truffaut, the french cinema genious who filmed farhenheit 451. Bradbury is also shown as a man who loved Hollywood from the time he was a small boy. This book is a great addition to have, both for the written word and the beautiful artwork.

Even when Ray Bradbury isn't writing, his friends and fans and disciples are writing about him. This book will give you a couple of hours of joy, and make you wish you had read all 500 of Bradbury's published works, seen all his movies and television productions, heard all his radio plays, seen his stage productions, heard all his recorded books and stories, attended all his lectures, seen all his media interviews. Once hooked on Bradbury, no-one goes into recovery. Ray Bradbury's works are written for future generations of optimal behaviorists who want to see the world and its people survive and thrive.--Jim Reed, author, DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS HIDDEN COMFORTS UNEXPECTED JOYS. Learn more about Reed: jimreedbooks.com

The fantasy-science fiction literary genre has seen its fortunes wax and wane over the past several decades. I think the last big "wax" was around 25 years ago, when the first "Star Wars" movie hit. I walked into a chain bookstore around that time and they seemed to have a whole wall --- the long one --- for science fiction. Most places still have a pretty decent section, but nothing like it really deserves. Some of the really classic writers, the guys without whom there wouldn't even be a genre, get short shrift as well. Where are the Murray Leinster books? The Fritz Leiber novels? Where's the Robert Heinlein section? The Philip K. Dick shelf? And where's the bookstore dedicated to Ray Bradbury?Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago if Bradbury was still alive. I went ballistic. Like Al Capone, I'm a peaceful man. But I have my limits. Still alive? Bradbury is still writing! If his prose lately doesn't have the fire, the bite, of such stories as "Mars In Heaven" or "The Small Assassin" or "Judgment Day" or novels like SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES or FAHRENHEIT 451, it's still better than 90 percent of the stuff out there, and besides, lemme ask you...do you do anything as well now as you did 50, 60 years, ago? Besides dribble?! It's entirely possible that if you enjoy reading it's because someone jammed a copy of a Bradbury book into your little hands, or a teacher read you a Bradbury story in high school. Still alive? He'll never die. I truly believe that, at the end of all that, is the last sound heard will be Louis Armstrong's trumpet and the last thing seen will be a sentence written by Bradbury. Hope I'm here to see if I'm right. Then again, maybe I don't want to know.The foregoing rant will accordingly give you some vague idea of how I felt when I cracked the binding of BRADBURY: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE. This labor of love by Jerry Weist is an absolutely indispensable compendium of Bradbury in the print and movie media, crammed into a coffeetable format book that despite its larger than regulation size can barely contain the universe of the imagination that Bradbury has been creating for your consideration and perusal for over six decades. Paperback covers, illustrations, reproductions of comic book adaptations, movie stills, advertisements --- I guarantee you that, no matter how huge a fan of Bradbury you are, there are sights in this book you've never seen before. There's an artist's adaptation of The Illustrated Man that scares the living sh...er, stuffing out of me every time I look at it, there's a shot of the cover of the pulp magazine that initially got Bradbury interested in the fantasy genre, covers of some of the fanzines he wrote for --- and published, even reproductions of some of the correspondence that occurred between Bradbury and William M. Gaines when EC Comics, which went on to publish Mad Magazine, adapted a couple of his stories without permission in a couple of their science fiction titles (it all ended well, by the way

This harcover book is a great pictorial overview of Ray Bradbury's career - not focusing so much on his life, but more on his life's product. Page after page of photos, with special attention given to his stories, as well as the movies, plays, comics, and other things based on them. It contains an abundance of personal photos, harcover and paperback cover images, movie stills, behind-the-scenes photos, EC comic pages, discussions of the artists most associated with Bradbury's works, and even some rough drafts and alternate versions of book covers. If you collect Bradbury's works, you'll find this an invaluable resource towards recognizing different printings of his books, even foreign editions. ALSO, if you are a fan of the Collectors Press series of hardcovers, (Pulp Culture, Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction of the 20th Century, and others), you should definitely purchase this! You won't be disappointed!